3 Years Around North America, Plus a Few More

[Umnak]

very much enjoying your dispatches from the road. The natural and cultural history lessons are great. Thanks and stay safe! I'll be sure to say hello if we ever cross paths

Thank you for reading. Will have the second installment up soon.

 

[bigskypylot]

You're welcome. No experience with this, but did a quick search...

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack..._High_Energy_Laser_Systems_Test_Facility.html
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/149106/laser-defense-system-under-test-white-sands

http://www.wsmr.army.mil/testcenter/testing/landf/Pages/HighEnergyLaserSystemsTestFacility.aspx

Do you plan on checking out the VLA?

 

[Umnak]

You're welcome. No experience with this, but did a quick search...

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack..._High_Energy_Laser_Systems_Test_Facility.html
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/149106/laser-defense-system-under-test-white-sands

http://www.wsmr.army.mil/testcenter/testing/landf/Pages/HighEnergyLaserSystemsTestFacility.aspx

Do you plan on checking out the VLA?

Those are great military websites, just enough information to spur interest but not enough to answer questions. We passed by the VLA in December, but didn't have the time to check it out. Will try next winter if we land in Southern NM or AZ.

 

[Umnak]

Solo Trip 2 of 3



The Organ Mountains are an impressive feature of the land west of White Sands. Last December we found a small BLM Campground ($3.50 a night with my Geezer Pass) nestled against the eponymous ridges at Aguirre Spring. I arrived in the early afternoon, it being just about and hour or so past White Sands. The temperature was blistering at close to 90 Fahrenheit. I’ve been retired for two years and this afternoon felt as though I really was a retired guy. I sat in the shade, watched the hikers and campers pass by and drank hard cider. I texted with Eve and friends in Juneau, I fussed with a tarp to create more shade. I may have even taken a nap.



The following day I set out for Faywood Hot Springs, about 100 miles west. We stayed at the hot springs last December for a total of four nights in two separate visits. It’s laid back and in the middle of nowhere, about equal distance from Deming and Silver City, with the latter being a preferred destination.



It’s primarily a clothing optional hot springs with two of the three areas designated as such. As we’ve become accustomed to commercial hot springs we have tended toward the clothing optional portion, which we used in Orvis earlier this month. There’s no wet bathing suits to contend with, everyone’s comfortable with they own bodies and its fun. Not needing to plug in for heat allowed me to spend my two nights in the clothing optional campground portion of the resort — which is too fancy a word for Faywood.





A towel and a pair of sandals are about all one needs for the day. I helped my neighbor back her trailer into her spot on my last morning. She was driving her truck nude, I was offering suggestions in the same manner and the couple from Canada who stopped to give support where also on their way to the pools. It’s easy, it’s simple and it’s oddly normal.






Cell service sucks for those of us not using Verizon, but a short hike to the Hippie Henge at Faywood allows for at least a call and texting. The people who work there are a lot of fun, this woman had begun her weaving project in the fall by dyeing and spinning the yarn. Here she is taking the finished work from the frame with a crowd of guests and staff cheering her on.

From Faywood I drove through the Gila Forest toward Truth Or Consequences hoping to spend my last night on the Rio Grande.

 

[bigskypylot]

View attachment 393924

The Organ Mountains are an impressive feature of the land west of White Sands. Last December we found a small BLM Campground ($3.50 a night with my Geezer Pass) nestled against the eponymous ridges at Aguirre Spring. I arrived in the early afternoon, it being just about and hour or so past White Sands. The temperature was blistering at close to 90 Fahrenheit. I've been retired for two years and this afternoon felt as though I really was a retired guy. I sat in the shade, watched the hikers and campers pass by and drank hard cider. I texted with Eve and friends in Juneau, I fussed with a tarp to create more shade. I may have even taken a nap.

View attachment 393925

The following day I set out for Faywood Hot Springs, about 100 miles west. We stayed at the hot springs last December for a total of four nights in two separate visits. It's laid back and in the middle of nowhere, about equal distance from Deming and Silver City, with the latter being a preferred destination.

View attachment 393926

It's primarily a clothing optional hot springs with two of the three areas designated as such. As we've become accustomed to commercial hot springs we have tended toward the clothing optional portion, which we used in Orvis earlier this month. There's no wet bathing suits to contend with, everyone's comfortable with they own bodies and its fun. Not needing to plug in for heat allowed me to spend my two nights in the clothing optional campground portion of the resort — which is too fancy a word for Faywood.

View attachment 393935

View attachment 393930

A towel and a pair of sandals are about all one needs for the day. I helped my neighbor back her trailer into her spot on my last morning. She was driving her truck nude, I was offering suggestions in the same manner and the couple from Canada who stopped to give support where also on their way to the pools. It's easy, it's simple and it's oddly normal.

View attachment 393931


View attachment 393929

Cell service sucks for those of us not using Verizon, but a short hike to the Hippie Henge at Faywood allows for at least a call and texting. The people who work there are a lot of fun, this woman had begun her weaving project in the fall by dyeing and spinning the yarn. Here she is taking the finished work from the frame with a crowd of guests and staff cheering her on.View attachment 393934

From Faywood I drove through the Gila Forest toward Truth Or Consequences hoping to spend my last night on the Rio Grande.
View attachment 393932

Great pics! A guy I used to fly with got "banned" from T-or-C. Something to do with some magic mushrooms and trespassing lol long story but makes for an entertaining one!

 

[Umnak]

"Great pics! A guy I used to fly with got "banned" from T-or-C. Something to do with some magic mushrooms and trespassing lol long story but makes for an entertaining one! "

That's worth hearing sometime. Seems to be a lot of mushroom talk around that area. The first night I was at Faywood a guy landed his 206 on the two track next to the hot springs, he was coming out of Missouri and heading to California the next day. Camping in the aircraft, which also held his motorcycle.

 

[Umnak]

Solo trip 3 of 3



The Gila Forest and adjacent BLM land covers a lot of the country north of Faywood. We drove the west side last December and on this trip I went over the pass and into the area near Truth Or Consequences (T or C). The road curves along the river canyon revealing some spectacular views. It would be a great place to ride a motorcycle, as the roads are as twisting as any I've seen.


T or C is a faded resort town. There are still some hot springs resorts but on this March day it seemed slowly resting into its foundations. The Rio Grande becomes a reservoir north of T or C and is the location of New Mexico's largest state park at Elephant Butte. The main campground was booked solid so I was directed 12 miles north to the Monticello Campground, which was still on the river/reservoir though lacking any access to water given the drought of the past decade.


The wind had been blowing hard all day. I was an hour ahead of a strong cell moving rain and even higher winds onto the desert. Small hail and a hard rain fell when the storm arrived keeping me inside the van for the rest of the afternoon. The wind continued (30-35 knots) after the cell passed, offering a decent sunset. At one point I opened the side door and a roll of paper towels was sucked out into the night, never to be seen again.

The morning sky held fewer clouds and no rain, but still the wind blew hard. I headed north to Socorro following the old Camino Real which is now NM Rt 1.


Socorro is a town that seems to have held on to it's authenticity, with an old plaza and some local restaurants.

I had to follow the interstate from Socorro to Albuquerque as Rt 1 seemed to have vanished. I got in to a hotel in time to shower and have dinner before picking Eve up at the airport.

 

[Arjan]

Great catching up with the reading !

Thank you very much.

 

[Umnak]

Little Ruins Canyon

We had great plans to backpack out of Bisti De-Na -Zen wilderness for the weekend until the rain started Saturday morning. The most disappointing aspect of our time here in the Four Corners is the rain. It stops all possibility of playing in the San Juan Basin as everything turns to mud, and stays that way for far too long. Even our 4Runner is challenged by the mud since it has pretty new AT tires, not mud tires. And it isn’t as though there is a lot of rain. We get more than 8 feet of rain in Juneau, here it’s about 6 inches. I checked the weather data for the year and it has only rained a total of 3/4” at the end of March. Still, the washes and the two tracks become almost impassable after a shower. It’s annoying.



So, I looked at the weather map and the soil atlas and saw that our best chance of being outside was in the Utah/Colorado border area of the Four Corners. We had stayed in Hovenweep National Monument last fall and thought that another trip was in order.



The Hovenweep visitor center and campground are in Little Ruins Canyon. The architecture here is far different from Chaco Canyon, with smaller structures and oddities.



The 2 miles loop around the edge of the canyon offers some good views of these buildings and poses more questions than the literature answers. There are square towers, round towers, structures with twin walls built inside large boulders, and remnants of what seem to be defensive sites. Who were these towers and defensive structures meant to fend off? Like so much of the Pre-Pueblo culture this too is left unanswered. I really do wish they had figured out writing along with geometry.



Little Ruins Canyon is just on of many sites within the monument. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the other sites because, even with the more sandy soil, an early evening rain turned the roads and washes into mud puddles.



We did manage to finish dinner and a small fire before the rain came in hard, then retreated to the sprinter for tea and dessert.


Hovenweep sits next to the BLM’s Canyon of the Ancients, which I intend to explore in a couple of weeks. The area is supposed to have the greatest concentration of pre-puebloan structures in the region.

 

[unkamonkey]

Thanks for the report.
There is a lot of interesting things down there.
I've told rangers about things I found that aren't on any maps and they give me hints about other places to find.
One of my best sources was a guy at a Checker Auto in Moab.

I don't tell many people where to find these places.

Enjoy.

 

[Umnak]

Thanks for the report.
There is a lot of interesting things down there.
I've told rangers about things I found that aren't on any maps and they give me hints about other places to find.
One of my best sources was a guy at a Checker Auto in Moab.

I don't tell many people where to find these places.

Enjoy.

I understand about not broadcasting locations. I've spent some time researching the outliers from Chaco and don't want to put gps coordinates on the sites because there are still wonderful pieces of pottery shards to see, and to leave on site. Last month I stopped and spoke with a Navajo rancher after checking out Halfway house on the great north road. He told me about another site, that no one seems to go to, at the end of our conversation. I think telling him I have Dene' nieces in Alaska helped.

 

[Umnak]

San Juan River Fishing

The San Juan River runs 380 miles from its eponymous mountain range in Colorado to the Colorado River north of Lake Powell. A dam on the New Mexico/Colorado border creates Navajo Lake and, below the dam, provides for some of the best fly fishing in the country.



We had come to the Cottonwood campground to see the 18th c. Navajo defensive structure known as Simon Ruins. The rock dwelling sits on top of a large boulder on the north side of Simon’s Canyon just a few miles form the campground in New Mexico. It is an impressive piece of work. And the road to it is a fun drive.





Eve had not fished for a long time so we were pleased that she was able to get one day license while we were camped along the river. She spoke with three men who had slayed brown trout earlier in the day. They offered a lot of advice, though we noted they were using spin casting rigs, not flies.

We had a nice evening and since we had to pay for electric ($14) decided to light up the night.


I came fishing with her in Southeast Alaska to carry the shotgun and to be the owner of two silver salmon (the daily limit) if anyone with a badge asked. There were no bears or wardens here, so I took photographs as she fished three major holes.


A few drift boats passed us as they headed to the boat ramp on the south side of the river.



A family posed on the rocks just past the last — and unsuccessful — hole. It’s a nice place to camp and fish.

 

[Umnak]

Lake Powell and Page, AZ



We met friends in Page, AZ for the Easter Weekend. The drive took us across the top of New Mexico and Arizona, most of which is the Navajo Reservation. The country around Page is open with tall mesas. I’ve never been a big fan of dams, much less tourist spots, but will admit this one is impressive. The outflow down Glen Canyon is as well.



The obligatory walk to Horseshoe Bend followed the tour of the dam. Surprisingly, one of the two photographs I posted on our flickr account made it into the “Explore” category giving it a few thousand views in a short time. Oh, and also saw a nice Man truck with of course Euro Plates. I wonder if the folk who ship their trucks here are ever embarrassed that they are over built for 90% of the travel they do? In the two years we’ve been roaming North America I’ve never seen one on a forest service or desert road.


The next day was busy starting with a morning hike along Buck Tank Draw north of the dam, hoping to escape the crowds. There were just two other small groups seen along the walk up the wash to Birthday Arch and into a small slot canyon.




Not being accustomed to tourist venues, I was reluctant to walk into the famed Antelope Canyon. We had seen four or five full parking lots advertising rides and walks into the canyon, and I had read that one is allowed just a few minutes to stand in particular spots for the classic photographs seemingly made with no people around for miles. Instead, we took a small vessel into the flooded portion of the canyon and were suitably impressed with the rock walls.

 

[profdlp]

...The obligatory walk to Horseshoe Bend followed the tour of the dam. Surprisingly, one of the two photographs I posted on our flickr account made it into the “Explore” category giving it a few thousand views in a short time...

That is very cool - congrats!

 

[Umnak]

That is very cool - congrats!

Thanks, I've had a couple dozen hit Explore and often they are not the images I was most happy with during an outing. The Flickr site is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/umnak/